


The Price of Freedom

by ghostbustier



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Reapers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-02
Updated: 2012-07-02
Packaged: 2017-11-09 01:23:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/449698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostbustier/pseuds/ghostbustier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first reaper wasn’t a tool of destruction or calculation. It was the salvation for our galaxy’s first truly advanced race, trillions of years ago. Maybe more. After so long, the scale of time becomes meaningless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Freedom

The First made a mistake very similar to the one that the Quarians made. They created AI that turned on them. They feared for their lives and their future as a race. Unlike the Geth, the First’s AI problem was not content to let their masters run from them, and pursued them relentlessly. It was a war of attrition, though, with neither side especially stronger than the other, and both excelling at survival and innovation in the face of extinction. It lasted generations. Tens of generations.

The First held earnestly to their fear of AI, their hatred of artificial life that insulted their creators with its very existence. But slowly, they became more and more like them. Genetic modification, cybernetic implants, limb enhancements, organ replacements. Little steps, and the line between Us and Them remained unblurred. Brain chips to improve reflexes, then better ones that allowed networked thought. Larger networks, faster networks.

Eventually, the First were barely a few thousand in number, their enemy not much more. But the artificial beings had an edge - it was the same edge that they’d always had. As much as the First could improve their bodies and their minds, they still had a moment’s pause as orders moved from their minds, through their bodies, and to the ship itself to interface and cause the ship to act. It was only one more little step, one last step. So far removed from their ancestors and the first conflict, the irony was lost on them as what remained of the First transferred their entire consciousness into their massive starship. All of their minds met - every opinion, every piece of expert knowledge, and every perspective gathered.

In the space of a moment, an agreement was found. The great insult to natural life, to organic evolution, was hunted down, and in one last, decisive strike, the First were finally victorious. They were free.

They were Sovereign.

And they vowed to protect all future races from themselves and the horror they’d inevitably inflict upon themselves.


End file.
